Urinal and urinal flushing control method

ABSTRACT

A urinal and a urinal flushing control method. The urinal includes a urinal body, an electromagnetic valve for turning on and off flushing, a capacitive sensor for sensing a liquid amount on an outer wall of the urinal body, and a controller for receiving a capacitance value signal to control on and off of the electromagnetic valve. The controller sets a flushing timing reference point when determining that a capacitance value exhibits a dropping trend after a first period since the electromagnetic valve is controlled to be turned off, and controls to turn on the electromagnetic valve when the flushing timing reference point is present for a second period. The above solution can reduce the chance of erroneous flushing and facilitate the adaptability respect to the glazed surface of the urinal body.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefits of China application serial no. 201910371461.2, filed on May 6, 2019 and China application serial no. 201910600405.1, filed on Jul. 4, 2019. The entirety of each of the above-mentioned patent applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention

The embodiments of the invention relate to sanitary ware, and particularly relate to a urinal, urinal flushing control method and a blockage determining method.

2. Description of Related Art

A smart urinal is capable of flushing automatically without manual interference by human beings. In the conventional art, a smart urinal determines that urination starts when the liquid amount in the urinal increases to reach a threshold, and adopts this point as the flushing timing reference point, so as to flush after a period set manually. An issue arising from the above-mentioned technical solution is that, when the time of urination is longer, the urinal may suddenly start flushing during urination and thus get clothes wet. It is also possible that, when the time of urination is quite short, the urinal may suddenly start flushing during urination of the next user. Besides, such technical solution is unable to cope with variations of the materials for glazed surfaces of urinal bodies. That is, if the threshold is set too high, for some glazed surfaces that are difficult to accumulate a water layer thereon, the threshold may not be reached even during urination; if the threshold is set too low, erroneous flushing may occur easily.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The following is a summary of the subject matters described in detail in the invention. However, the summary does not serve to limit the scope of claims.

Embodiments of the invention provides a urinal and a urinal flushing control method. With the urinal and the method, the chance of erroneous flushing can be reduced, and the adaptability with respect to various glazed surfaces of urinal bodies can be improved.

The embodiments of the invention relates to a urinal including a urinal body, an electromagnetic valve, a capacitive sensor, and a controller. The controller sets a flushing timing reference point when determining that a capacitance value exhibits a dropping trend after a first period since the electromagnetic valve is controlled to be turned off, and controls to turn on the electromagnetic valve and removes the flushing timing reference point when the flushing timing reference point is present for a second period.

The embodiments of the invention also relate to a urinal flushing control method. The urinal flushing control method includes: disposing an electromagnetic valve to turn on and off flushing water flushing an outer wall of a urinal body; disposing a capacitive sensor on an inner wall of the urinal body to sense a liquid amount at a corresponding location on the outer wall of the urinal body and transmit a capacitance value signal; setting a flushing timing reference point when determining that a capacitance value exhibits a dropping trend after a first period since the electromagnetic valve is controlled to be turned off, and controlling to turn on the electromagnetic valve and, at the same time, remove the flushing timing reference point when the flushing timing reference point is present for a second period.

According to the above, the flushing timing reference point is set based on the capacitance value drop resulting from the decrease in the urination amount. Therefore, compared with setting the flushing timing reference point based on the increase in capacitance value when urination starts, the situation in which the urinal suddenly starts flushing during urination when the time of urination is longer can be avoided, and the situation in which the urinal suddenly starts flushing during urination of the next user when the time of urination of the last user is quite short can also be avoided. Besides, since the flushing timing reference point is set by determining the dropping trend, the issues arising from setting the flushing timing reference point according to whether the capacitance value threshold is reached are avoided. As result, the adaptability with respect to various glazed surfaces of urinal bodies is facilitated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the invention, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments are briefly described below. It is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the invention. Those of ordinary skill in the art are able to obtain other figures from these drawings without creative effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating a structure of a urinal according to Embodiment 1.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view illustrating a urinal flushing control method of Embodiment 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating a urinal flushing control method of Embodiment 2.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating a urinal flushing control method of Embodiment 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiments of the invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers are used in the drawings and the description to refer to the same or like parts.

In the claims and the specification, unless otherwise specified, the term “capacitive sensor” refers to a device sensing a medium change in a non-contact manner. Such a device normally includes a conductive body. The conductive body serves as a pole of capacitance, and a medium change near the conductive body may lead to change of capacitance value.

The term “controller” refers to a device which receives a sensing signal, stores and compares the signal, and transmits a control command to an executor (e.g., an electromagnetic valve).

The terms “dropping trend” and “rising trend” bear the meanings which people of ordinary skill in the art can understand and do not bear any other special meaning. It should also be understood that, as well known in this field, there may be various methods for determining whether a dropping trend or a rising trend is present, such as derivation.

Terms such as “first”, “second”, or “third”, etc., merely serve to distinguish different objects and neither describe a special order nor require values different from each other.

In the following, the technical solutions of the embodiments will be described comprehensively with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Embodiment 1

Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 illustrates a structure of a urinal according to Embodiment 1. As shown in FIG. 1, in Embodiment 1, the urinal includes a urinal body 1, an electromagnetic valve 2, a capacitive sensor 31, and a controller 32.

The urinal body 1 is normally made of ceramics, and is provided with a chamber 11 for containing urine or flushing water. A draining port 10 is provided at the lower end of the chamber 11.

The electromagnetic valve 2 turns on or off a flushing pipeline to turn on and off flushing water. One end of the flushing pipeline is provided with an opening at the upper end of the chamber 11, and the flushing water flows downward from the upper end of the chamber 11 along a wall surface of the urinal body 1.

The capacitive sensor 31 is attached to the inner wall of the urinal body 1 at a location near the draining port 10. The capacitive sensor 31 serves to sense a capacitance change resulting from a medium change at a corresponding location on the outer wall of the urinal body 1 and transmit a capacitance value signal; and the controller 32 is electrically connected with the capacitive sensor 31 to receive the capacitance value signal and is electrically connected with the electromagnetic valve 2 to control on and off of the electromagnetic valve 2. The controller collects, stores, and compares a capacitance value every fifth period (100 ms in the embodiment), and controls the electromagnetic valve 2 according to a control logic as follows: if determining that the capacitance value exhibits a dropping trend after a first period since the electromagnetic valve 2 is turned off, the controller 32 sets a starting point of the dropping trend as a flushing timing reference point and, at the same time, removes a self-cleaning timing reference point if such a self-cleaning timing reference point is present; the controller 32 further controls to turn on the electromagnetic valve 2 and remove the flushing timing reference point if the flushing timing reference point is present for a second period; the controller 32 further turns off the electromagnetic valve 2 when the electromagnetic valve 2 is turned on for a third period; the controller 32 further sets the self-cleaning timing reference point when controlling to turn off the electromagnetic valve 2, and controls to turn on the electromagnetic valve 2 when the self-cleaning timing reference point is present for a fourth period and, at the same time, remove the self-cleaning timing reference point.

The first period is generally set as being slightly longer than a period required from the electromagnetic valve 2 being turned off to all the flushing water being drained through the draining port 10, and is set as six seconds in the embodiment. The second period is generally set as being longer than a period required from the urination amount of a normal user starts decreasing to the user leaving the urinal, and is set as ten seconds in the embodiment. The third period is generally set as a period required for cleaning the urinal with the flushing water, and is set as five seconds in the embodiment. The fourth period may be arbitrarily set by the owner of the urinal, and is set as six hours in the embodiment.

In the embodiment, the controller 32 determines that the capacitance value exhibits the dropping trend according to the following: if the capacitance values collected in five earlier sessions before the current session are stable, and the capacitance value collected in the current session drops, the controller 32 determines that the capacitance value exhibits the dropping trend. Here, “stable” indicates that the absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the five earlier sessions before the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions before the current session is consistently less than a first value. Here, the first value is set as slightly greater than the capacitance value variation when a normal user urinates normally.

In the following, how the controller controls the urinal to flush during a process of use is described with reference to FIG. 2.

In FIG. 2, the horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents capacitance value. The lower portion illustrates a capacitance value curve during the process of use, the dotted-line parts do not exhibit a metric relationship in terms of time, but only illustrates trends. The upper portion indicates key events.

As shown in FIG. 2, an event A represents a turn-off of the electromagnetic valve 2. The time point of this turn-off of the electromagnetic valve 2 is T₀. Six seconds (first period) from T₀, the time reaches T₁. Since T₁, if a dropping trend is found through monitoring, the flushing timing reference point is set.

An event B indicates that a first user starts urinating. At this time, since urine flows downward from the urinal wall, the capacitance value may increase. After increasing to a certain extent, since the water layer on the urinal wall of the urinal stops increasing, the capacitance value becomes stable.

At a time point T₂, the urination amount of the first user decreases (i.e., event C), the capacitance value meets the condition of being determined as exhibiting the dropping trend. That is, the capacitance values collected in five earlier sessions before the current session (P) are stable (the absolute value of the difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the five earlier sessions and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions is consistently less than the first value), and the absolute value of the difference between the capacitance value collected in the current session (P) and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions is greater than the first value. Therefore, the time point T₂ is set as the flushing timing reference point. At this time, if the self-cleaning timing reference point is present, the self-cleaning timing reference point is removed.

At a time point T₃, i.e., ten seconds (second period) since the time point T₂, the controller 32 controls to turn on the electromagnetic valve 2 (event D) and, at the same time, remove the flushing timing reference point. At this time, the capacitance value increases again.

At a time point T₄, i.e., five seconds (third period) since the time point T₃, the controller 32 controls to turn off (event E) the electromagnetic valve 2, and sets this time point as the self-cleaning timing reference point.

At a time point T₅, i.e., six hours (fourth period) since the self-cleaning timing reference point T₄, if the self-cleaning timing reference point is still present, the controller 32 controls to turn on the electromagnetic valve 2 (event F).

At a time point T₆, i.e., five seconds (third period) since the time point T₅, the controller 32 controls to turn off (event G) the electromagnetic valve 2, and, at the same time, sets the self-cleaning timing reference point again.

The process of use above is merely described to explain the control logic of the controller 32. According to the control logic of the embodiment, the flushing timing reference point is set based on the capacitance value drop resulting from the decrease in the urination amount. Therefore, compared with setting the flushing timing reference point based on the increase in capacitance value when urination starts, the situation in which the urinal suddenly starts flushing during urination when the time of urination is longer can be avoided, and the situation in which the urinal suddenly starts flushing during urination of the next user when the time of urination of the last user is quite short can also be avoided.

Besides, since the flushing timing reference point is set by determining the dropping trend, the issues arising from setting the flushing timing reference point according to whether the capacitance value threshold is reached are avoided. As result, the adaptability with respect to various glazed surfaces of urinal bodies is facilitated.

Embodiment 2

The structure of the urinal of Embodiment 2 does not differ from the structure of the urinal of Embodiment 1. The main difference between Embodiment 1 and Embodiment 2 lies in the control logic of the controller 32. In Embodiment 2, the control logic of the controller 32 is as follows: if determining that the capacitance value exhibits a dropping trend after the first period since the electromagnetic valve 2 is turned off, the controller 32 sets the starting point of the dropping trend as the flushing timing reference point and, at the same time, removes the self-cleaning timing reference point, if such self-cleaning timing reference point is present; during the period in which the flushing timing reference point is still present, if determining that the capacitance value exhibits a rising trend, the controller 32 further removes the flushing timing reference point; the controller 32 further controls to turn on the electromagnetic valve 2 and remove the flushing timing reference point if the flushing timing reference point is present for the second period; the controller 32 further turns off the electromagnetic valve 2 when the electromagnetic valve 2 is turned on for the third period.

In Embodiment 2, the first period is also set as six seconds, the second period is also set as ten seconds, and the third period is also set as five seconds.

In the embodiment, the controller 32 determines that the capacitance value exhibits the dropping trend according to the following: if the capacitance value collected in the current session and the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions all drop with respect to the capacitance value collected in the session before the five earlier sessions, and the capacitance values collected in the five sessions even earlier than five earlier sessions are stable, the controller 32 determines that the capacitance value exhibits the dropping trend. Here, “stable” indicates that the absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the five sessions even earlier than the five earlier sessions before the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five sessions is consistently less than the first value.

In the embodiment, the controller 32 determines that the capacitance value exhibits the rising trend according to the following: if the capacitance value collected in the current session and the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions are all rising with respect to the capacitance value collected in the session before the five earlier sessions, and the capacitance values collected in the five sessions even earlier than the five earlier sessions are stable, the controller 32 determines that the capacitance value exhibits the rising trend. Here, “stable” indicates that the absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the five sessions even earlier than the five earlier sessions before the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five sessions is consistently less than the first value.

Here, the first value is set as slightly greater than a greater value between a capacitance value fluctuation when the urinal wall is in a waterless state and a capacitance value fluctuation in a state where water keeps flowing down.

In the following, how the controller 32 controls the urinal to flush during a process of use is described with reference to FIG. 3. In FIG. 3, the horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents capacitance value. The lower portion illustrates a capacitance value curve during the process of use, the dotted-line parts do not exhibit a metric relationship in terms of time, but only illustrates trends. The upper portion indicates key events.

As shown in FIG. 3, the event A represents a turn-off of the electromagnetic valve 2. The time point of this turn-off of the electromagnetic valve 2 is T₀. Six seconds (first period) from T₀, the time reaches T₁. Since T₁, if a dropping trend is found through monitoring, the flushing timing reference point is set.

The event B indicates that the first user starts urinating. At this time, since urine flows downward from the urinal wall, the capacitance value may increase. After increasing to a certain extent, since the water layer on the urinal wall of the urinal stops increasing, the capacitance value becomes stable.

At the time point T₂, since the urination amount of the first user decreases (i.e., event C), the capacitance value keeps dropping until a time point (P) at which the capacitance value meets the condition of being determined as exhibiting the dropping trend. At this point, the time point T₂ (the starting point of the dropping trend) is set as the flushing timing reference point. The condition of being determined as exhibiting the dropping trend is that, if the capacitance value collected in the current session and the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions all drop with respect to the capacitance value collected in the session before the five earlier sessions, and the capacitance values collected in the five sessions even earlier than the five earlier sessions are stable, the capacitance value is determined as exhibiting the dropping trend. Here, “stable” indicates that the absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the five sessions even earlier than the five earlier sessions before the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five sessions is consistently less than the first value.

At a time point T₇, which is less than 10 seconds (second period) from T₂, a second user starts urinating (i.e., event H). Therefore, the capacitance value keeps rising until a time point (P) at which the capacitance value meets the condition of being determined as exhibiting the rising trend. At this point, the flushing timing reference point T₂ is removed. The condition of being determined as exhibiting the rising trend is that, if the capacitance value collected in the current session and the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions are all rising with respect to the capacitance value collected in the session before the five earlier sessions, and the capacitance values collected in the five sessions even earlier than the five earlier sessions are stable, the capacitance value is determined as exhibiting the rising trend. Here, “stable” indicates that the absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the five sessions even earlier than the five earlier sessions before the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five sessions is consistently less than the first value.

At a time when the urination amount of the second user decreases (i.e., event I), the capacitance value keeps dropping. At a time point (P), since the capacitance value meets the condition of being determined as exhibiting the dropping trend, a time point T₈ (the starting point of the dropping trend) is set as the new flushing timing reference point. The condition of being determined as exhibiting the dropping trend is that, if the capacitance value collected in the current session and the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions all drop with respect to the capacitance value collected in the session before the five earlier sessions, and the capacitance values collected in the five sessions even earlier than the five earlier sessions are stable, the capacitance value is determined as exhibiting the dropping trend. Here, “stable” indicates that the absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the five sessions even earlier than the five earlier sessions before the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five sessions is consistently less than the first value.

At a time point T₉, i.e., ten seconds (second period) since the time point T₈, the controller 32 controls to turn on the electromagnetic valve 2 (event J) and, at the same time, remove the flushing timing reference point. At this time, the capacitance value increases again.

At a time point T₁₀, i.e., five seconds (third period) since the time point T₉, the controller 32 controls to turn off (event K) the electromagnetic valve 2.

The process of use above is merely described to explain the control logic of the controller 32. According to the control logic of the embodiment, since the mechanism of removing the flushing timing reference point when the capacitance value increases due to starting of urination, the situation in which the previous user finishes using the urinal and flushing starts during urination of the next user immediately following the previous user is avoided, and the chance of erroneous flushing is further lowered.

The method of determining the dropping trend and the rising trend in the embodiment is more discreet than the determining method of Embodiment 1. That is, with the determining method of the embodiment, the dropping trend and the rising trend can be reliably confirmed, thereby eliminating unknown interferences due to external factors.

Embodiment 3

The only difference of Embodiment 3 from Embodiment 2 is that the controller 32 determines that the capacitance value exhibits the rising trend according to the following: if the capacitance values collected in five earlier sessions before the current session are stable, and the capacitance value collected in the current session rises, the controller 32 determines that the capacitance value exhibits the rising trend. Here, “stable” indicates that the absolute value of the difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the five earlier sessions before the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions is consistently less than the first value.

FIG. 4 reflects the difference of the embodiment from Embodiment 2. That is, when the second user starts urinating (i.e., event H), the capacitance value keeps rising until a time point (P) at which the capacitance value meets the condition of being determined as exhibiting the rising trend. At this point, the flushing timing reference point T₂ is removed. The condition of being determined as exhibiting the rising trend is that if the capacitance values collected in five earlier sessions before the current session are stable, and the capacitance value collected in the current session rises, the controller 32 determines that the capacitance value exhibits the rising trend. Here, “stable” indicates that the absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the five earlier sessions before the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the five earlier sessions is consistently less than the first value.

The above description of the above specification and embodiments are intended to provide a further understanding of the invention, but do not constitute a limitation to the scope of the application. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A urinal, comprising: a urinal body; an electromagnetic valve, configured to turn on and off flushing water flushing an outer wall of the urinal body; a capacitive sensor, disposed on an inner wall of the urinal body to sense a liquid amount at a corresponding location on the outer wall of the urinal body and transmit a capacitance value signal; and a controller, electrically connected with the capacitive sensor to receive the capacitance value signal and electrically connected with the electromagnetic valve to control on and off of the electromagnetic valve, wherein: the controller sets a flushing timing reference point when determining that a dropping trend is present after a first period since the electromagnetic valve is controlled to be turned off, and controls to turn on the electromagnetic valve and removes the flushing timing reference point when the flushing timing reference point is present for a second period.
 2. The urinal as claimed in claim 1, wherein the capacitive sensor is disposed on the inner wall of the urinal body at a location near a draining port.
 3. A urinal flushing control method, comprising: disposing an electromagnetic valve to turn on and off flushing water flushing an outer wall of a urinal body; disposing a capacitive sensor on an inner wall of the urinal body to sense a liquid amount at a corresponding location on the outer wall of the urinal body and transmit a capacitance value signal; setting a flushing timing reference point when determining that a capacitance value exhibits a dropping trend after a first period since the electromagnetic valve is controlled to be turned off, and controlling to turn on the electromagnetic valve and, at the same time, remove the flushing timing reference point when the flushing timing reference point is present for a second period.
 4. The urinal flushing control method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the flushing timing reference point is set as a starting point of the dropping trend.
 5. The urinal flushing control method as claimed in claim 3, wherein the electromagnetic valve is controlled to be turned off when the electromagnetic valve is controlled to be turned on for a third period.
 6. The urinal flushing control method as claimed in claim 5, wherein a self-cleaning timing reference point is further set when the electromagnetic valve is controlled to be turned off, and the electromagnetic valve is controlled to be turned on and, at the same time, the self-cleaning timing reference point is removed when the self-cleaning timing reference point is present for a fourth period, wherein the self-cleaning timing reference point is further removed when the flushing timing reference point is set.
 7. The urinal flushing control method as claimed in claim 3, wherein: the capacitance value is collected, stored, and compared every fifth period, the capacitance value is determined as exhibiting the dropping trend if capacitance values collected in m earlier sessions before a current session are stable, and the capacitance value collected in the current session drops, wherein being stable indicates that an absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the m earlier sessions before the current session and an average of the capacitance values collected in the m sessions is consistently less than a first value, and dropping indicates that the capacitance value collected in the current session is less than the average of the capacitance values collected in the m earlier sessions before the current session and an absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the m earlier sessions before the current session is greater than the first value.
 8. The urinal flushing control method as claimed in claim 3, wherein: the capacitance value is collected, stored, and compared every fifth period, the capacitance value is determined as exhibiting the dropping trend if the capacitance value collected in a current session and capacitance values collected in n earlier sessions all drop with respect to a capacitance value collected in a previous session, and capacitance values collected in m even earlier sessions are stable, wherein being stable indicates that an absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the m sessions even earlier than the n sessions before the current session and an average of the capacitance values collected in the m sessions is consistently less than a first value.
 9. The urinal flushing control method as claimed in claim 3, wherein if the capacitance value is determined as exhibiting a rising trend during a period in which the flushing timing reference point is still present, the flushing timing reference point is removed.
 10. The urinal flushing control method as claimed in claim 9, wherein: the capacitance value is collected, stored, and compared every fifth period, the capacitance value is determined as exhibiting the rising trend if capacitance values collected in m earlier sessions before a current session are stable, and the capacitance value collected in the current session rises, wherein being stable indicates that an absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the m earlier sessions before the current session and an average of the capacitance values collected in the m sessions is consistently less than a first value, and rising indicates that the capacitance value collected in the current session is greater than the average of the capacitance values collected in the m earlier sessions before the current session and an absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in the current session and the average of the capacitance values collected in the m earlier sessions before the current session is greater than the first value.
 11. The urinal flushing control method as claimed in claim 9, wherein: the capacitance value is collected, stored, and compared every fifth period, the capacitance value is determined as exhibiting the rising trend if the capacitance value collected in a current session and capacitance values collected in n earlier sessions are all rising with respect to a capacitance value collected in a previous session, and capacitance values collected in m even earlier sessions are stable, wherein being stable indicates that an absolute value of a difference between the capacitance value collected in each of the m sessions even earlier than the n sessions before the current session and an average of the capacitance values collected in the m sessions is consistently less than a first value. 